


The Deer and His Doe

by gingersatan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adorable, F/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 12:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6006235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingersatan/pseuds/gingersatan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some Valentines day fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Deer and His Doe

The last year of Hogwarts was filled with homework and exams, more than all the other years put together. Students could be found, late into the night, peering over ink covered parchment trying to check what they had written.

And this included- for the first time, Lily realised- the four pranksters of their year.

Remus, Peter, Sirius and…James.

Up until last year, she would have stared at them in anger or annoyance. Up until last year, they would have deserved it, for disrupting the quiet of the common room, and generally being themselves.

But this year, there had been a change. Not much of one- she still saw them huddled in corners, muttering, planning, but they had grown up. They answered questions seriously in class, did their homework, and Lily was sure they had only been in detention once since September.

Sirius had even helped her with her homework once, though he had kept looking back at his friends, a strange look on his face, and a scowl on Potters.

James had started asking her out two years ago. Following her around the school, popping up every time she thought she was safe. She had hated it, and more than once, started shouting at him. This year, however, he had barely spoken to her. The odd comment about how she was, but that was it.

A part of her hated to admit it, but she was starting to miss him. He was annoying, he was an idiot, but he was also smart, and funny, and she knew he was more loyal to his friends than anyone else she knew.

A part of her sometimes wondered if he would ever be that loyal to her. And then that same part mentally kicked herself.

The beginning of February arrived with snowfall. The grounds were frozen, and most students huddled around the fires rather than face the cold outside. But Lily loved it. Snow wiped away the winter and turned it fresh. Turned the world into a piece of art. And she loved that with it, came a peacefulness that couldn’t be found in the castle itself.

But the beginning of February also started something else. It was late one evening, and she was just finishing her potions essay when she felt someone sit down beside her.

‘Evans.’

She knew that voice so well. ‘Potter.’

‘Its coming up to valentines day-’ She would not blush, she refused. ‘So I thought I could take you out. For a meal. Or just a stroll around Hogsmeade. Up to you.’

She already knew her answer. If she was being honest, she had known her answer since September, when she had seen him for the first time after a long summer. But that did not mean she could take revenge on him for how annoying he had been before. 

‘Really?’ She asked sweetly. ‘Are you sure that’s allowed? I mean, I thought to be able to walk anywhere with you, people needed a codename. Prongs.’ She still got angry at the fact she had not worked out the reasons behind their nicknames.

‘Yours can be Red.’ Sirius called, and she rolled her eyes. Of course they were listening. These boys were never far from each other, to help them out- and in- to trouble.

‘Red is not much of a nickname, since it’s the colour of my hair.’ She called back. ‘Try harder, Padfoot.’

‘Come on, Evans. Just one date.’

‘You can at least call me by my real name.’

‘Lily.’

‘Okay then.’ And she went back to reading her essay, smug satisfaction when he slowly got up, as if she was going to call him back.

Big headed, annoying, handsome, funny, intelligent boy.

Valentines day came quickly, and the castle filled with red and pink. Some students were followed around all day by tiny enchanted cherubs. Others had notes of love appearing on front of them in lessons, and some teachers had become so fed up that they started taking them and reading them to the entire class.

Though the best one was a howler Remus received at breakfast. The boy whose voice boomed out of it was nowhere to be seen, though she was sure Sirius would have been watching- after all, the look on Remus face when it shouted out

WHEN I SEE YOU, I FEEL LIKE HOWLING AT THE MOON

was something he would not have wanted to miss.

James, strangely, had been on perfect behaviour. She had gone down to the common room in the morning to find him stood there with a single lily flower, which he had tucked behind her hair, and he had escorted her to her lessons.

The seventh years only had half a day of lessons that day. Lily didn’t know if it was purely because of valentines day, or in the hopes that they would study, but they had been allowed to go up to the village after lunch.

She walked with James by her side, and at first, it was in silence, but then they started talking. James, of his family, and what it was like to grow up in a wizarding family, and Lily about her Muggle one.

He had laughed a lot about her upbringing, and the sound had made her smile.

‘There’s a tea room up here.’ He said when they got to the village, taking her hand and dragging her up the road. He didn’t even glance at the joke shop.

The Tea Room was uncomfortably pink. Almost blindingly so, and the red love hearts that fell like snow on the tables did not help.

She had to bite back a laugh as they sat down and ordered a hot chocolate each. James didn’t bother, his grin was as wide as his face.

‘It was here or the Three Broomsticks.’ He said in way of an apology. ‘I didn’t realise…’

‘Its fine.’ A pause, and he looked at her. ‘Okay, it’s not fine. But.’ She shrugged. ‘The companies good, at least.’

‘Evans, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever said something nice about me.’

‘What did I say about my name?’

‘Lily.’ His words were softer. ‘I…’ He ran a hand through his already messy hair. ‘I’ve been an idiot. My only excuse is that I am a guy, and I have Sirius as a best friend, and I liked showing off to you. I want to be better than that. I don’t want to show off. I want to show you what I can be like. I might mess up, you might get mad at me, but I don’t want this to be our first and only date. I like you, Lily Evans.’

She was sure her cheeks were as red as her hair, but for once, she didn’t mind. ‘Lets see how this one goes, James. Then maybe we can try a second one.’

Three months later, and the news of the prankster and Head Girl getting together was finally dying down, and they were being left alone. Apart from by the other three troublemakers.

It was funny, she sometimes thought, how Remus had been a prefect like her, and how they had never spoken, and how James was Head Boy- but never even wore the badge.

She sometimes wondered if it was done on purpose. Maybe the teachers played matchmaker as much as students did, trying to push them together in any way they could.

How James had become Head Boy, she had no other explanation- especially after they finally told her their secrets. What their code names were, and what that strange parchment was.

They had invented a map of the school. Not just that, but one that moved, one that followed everyone. These were the same boys that, two years ago, were walking down corridors turning people upside down just because they could.

They were geniuses, all of them, and they hid it behind laughter and friendship…and stupidity.

And because she judged them for that laughter, she had never bothered looking behind it before. And what she found there was a group of boys who she adored. One, who stole her heart, and the other three as brothers.

It was a few months after that when they finally told her of the reason Remus disappeared once a month. And the other secret they had kept for a few years. Their codenames, The Marauders. All named after the animal they became.

James has told her, and there had been something in his eyes. A test, maybe, when he spoke of Remus and what he was underneath. A wariness, and defence that she had never seen in him before.

All because werewolves were hated.

But when she told him she would never hate Remus, it disappeared, and he smiled, took her by the hands and kissed her.

And it was only a few months after that when everything changed again.

She was sat curled up in the chair in their new front room, a book on her lap and her wand in her hand. She was idly tapping it against her leg, the end shooting out gold, when he crept up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

‘Evans.’ She could hear the smile in his voice. ‘Would you do me the honour of becoming my doe?’

‘James?’

He walked around her, kneeling down.

‘Lily.’ He said softly, and this time there was no humour, just a steady gaze. ‘I love you. I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up next to you and sleep beside you, I want to share every secret and joke with you. I want you to become the fifth Marauder. I want you to be mine and I want to be yours. I want the world with you. Marry me?’

In that second, she saw so many ways her life could have gone. From the moment she set eyes on him- how shoe cold never have spoken to him, how she could have said no, how she could have hurt him. How he was here. How she could still say no.

Or how she could say yes, and how they could have children, mini James running around the house, being raised in the mismatch family that was Sirius and Remus and Peter. How the war they were in could be blocked out by the love in this house.

How they could be happy. Grow old together. Argue and disagree and laugh and love for years.

‘Yes.’ She whispered to him, knowing that it had always been that answer, from the moment she first saw him. ‘Yes.’


End file.
